The need to empower students with disabilities towards employment: one consumer's experiences and observations.

There is one thing that is different for each person with a disability and unites us all at the same time: It is our level of personal independence, which can only be measured individually; but society has deemed it the same for all people with disabilities.

Independence is a balance between the things we can do by ourselves and the things for which we need others' assistance. We understand that there are limitations to it that are framed by life's boundaries (i.e., reaching the top shelf from sitting in a wheelchair or working with a service dog who is, after all, still a dog) and independence should be a term applied only to those things that empower us. That being said, empowerment can come through education and, eventually, employment. This is the purpose of the Rehabilitation Act. However, there are a few more things that can help those students become employees when they graduate. I see this clearly because I graduated from the University of Utah less than one year ago and I am looking for full-time employment so that I may apply the skills and the experiences I have gained in college.

My degree is in political science, and my goal is to become an advocate for people with disabilities, to help them get the money and services they need to be independent. This is important to me because I was a part of the 13 percent of individuals served by rehabilitation agencies who are students with disabilities.

Throughout my childhood I was always clumsy and had problems with balance and small motor skills, but my pediatricians always told my parents: "Some kids are just clumsy. Don't worry, she'll grow out of it." Well, I never grew out of it, and when I was nine I started an 18-month series of blood tests, X-rays and doctor visits to try to pinpoint the cause of what had now advanced from mere clumsiness to pain in my legs and feet.

One doctor found scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, while another found a backflow of blood in my heart due to a thick wall in the left ventricle. It was the cardiologist who put all the side effects together and diagnosed Friedreich's ataxia (1).

A month before I turned 12, I had a spinal fusion and steel rods attached to my spine to stabilize the curve. By the time I reached high school, I was using my wheelchair all the time. I had lots of friends and some great teachers. I even held some pretty important leadership positions, including student representative for the entire school district on the local school board. Soon, others realized that my wheelchair was not the most important part of me. The people I worked with learned to see past the wheelchair. It wasn't that my chair was ignored; it was always there. It just was not important.

When it was time to go to college, I received a scholarship that paid for my first semester at the university. Through the Center for Disability Services on campus, I found out about vocational rehabilitation (VR), which paid for the rest of my education at the University of Utah. I earned my bachelor's degree in two years and eight months, along with an internship with the Legislative Coalition for People with Disabilities, where I advocated for money for the Centers for Disability Services in all 15 of the state's colleges and universities. I worked with others to receive $938,000 of ongoing money for all the Centers for Disability Services.

The next year, I interned for Representative Patricia W. Jones in the Utah State House of Representatives, where I saw democracy and the intricacies of the legislative process from another perspective.

Now the challenges of college are over, but the obstacles of finding employment and overcoming the negative attitudes of potential bosses and coworkers to put my skills and all that I have learned to use are still before me. The answer to the questions of finding employment is the Utah Department of Workforce Services, but my experience with it has shown me that it is ill-prepared to help people with disabilities or people who have a degree. This agency's focus seems to be on physical labor, which denies employment to me or to anyone with a college degree. This presents quite a problem, but the solution is clear. Just as rehabilitation counselors are so helpful through college, they also can aid the student with disabilities to transition to the workforce.

Rehabilitation counselors need to prepare students with disabilities for work while they are still in college. This requires more of an effort than just using federal grants and money to pay tuition for an education; it also involves ensuring students are fully ready for the work force when they graduate.

My VR counselor helped me prepare for employment in three ways. First, even before I began working with my counselor, the two of us discussed the type of work I wanted to do, and he helped me to focus my education accordingly. Second, he referred me to an occupational therapist that taught me things like safe transfers and answered my questions concerning how I could become independent. Finally, in addition to preparing for the work force, transportation to and from the job was an issue. My VR counselor helped me acquire a used car and learn to drive with hand controls. Most importantly, he was honest and open about college and what it would mean for me. That helped me prepare for the experiences and attitudes I would deal with at the university and beyond. He offered friendship and support through my studies and as I began to transition into the work force. However, there are a few things my VR counselor could have done better to help me prepare for work.

WORK EXPERIENCE TOWARDS EMPLOYMENT

One of the things he could have done was suggest work experience as a way to prepare for employment. My internships and the skills learned there came because I sought them out on campus rather than through VR. I was lucky to find an internship that gave me a close look at democracy and excited my passion for equality and empowerment. However, many students with disabilities are not nearly as lucky as I was. Work experience during college is an important method of preparing for the work force and should always be encouraged. If students have already started working towards gaining job experience, the counselor will at least know they will be that much more prepared for the work force when they graduate. If not, the VR counselor can help them find an internship or some other way to gain work experience. The things I learned in my internships were not taught in the classes or printed in the textbooks, but they were invaluable to me.

FINDING ROLE MODELS

Another way the counselor could have helped me prepare for the work force was to help me find at least one person with a disability in the field to serve as a role model. A mentor would have been helpful because he/ she would know from experience what it takes for the kinds of jobs I wanted and could have helped me transition from student to employee. People that have been assisted by VR in the past can serve as mentors for current students with a disability. Counselors could match each student with a mentor, thereby expanding the student's network of support and encouragement that he/she needs while in college and throughout life.

I need a job where my skills and the experiences I have had can be used to benefit others. Even though there are a few things my VR counselor could have done to better prepare me to transition to the work force, there are many things he did right.

* He helped me focus my studies to reflect the type of work I wanted to do.

* He sent me to an occupational therapist, and worked with me to solve the transportation dilemma.

* He was honest and supportive of me.

To be independent, students with disabilities must find a balance between the things they can do themselves and those things for which they must rely on others. Sometimes it is transportation or grabbing an item that is out of reach, but often it is support or encouragement. Every person, with or without a disability, needs a network of these people, especially while transitioning from school to work as a new member of the work force.

NOTES

(1.) An inherited disease, usually beginning in childhood before puberty, with sclerosis of the dorsal and lateral columns of the spinal cord. It is attended by an unsteady gait (ataxia), speech impairment, lateral curvature of the spinal column, and peculiar swaying and irregular movements, with paralysis of the muscles, especially of the lower extremities.